Danielle Steel sweeps us from a Manhattan courtroom to the Deep South in her powerful new novel at once a behind‎-closed‎-doors look into the heart of a family and a tale of crime and punishment‎.‎ SOUTHERN LIGHTS Eleven years have passed since Alexa Hamilton left the South behind‎,‎ fleeing the pain of her ex‎-husband s betrayal and the cruelty of his prominent Charleston family‎.‎ Now an assistant D‎.‎A‎.‎ in Manhattan‎,‎ Alexa has finally put her demons to rest‎,‎ raising her daughter alone and making a name for herself as a top prosecutor taking on some of the city s toughest cases‎.‎ But as Alexa prepares for her latest case‎,‎ the high‎-stakes trial of accused serial killer Luke Quentin‎,‎ threatening letters addressed to Savannah‎,‎ her beautiful seventeen‎-year‎-old daughter‎,‎ throw Alexa s private life into turmoil‎.‎ Certain that Quentin is behind the letters‎,‎ Alexa must make the toughest choice of all‎:‎ to send her daughter back to her ex‎-husband s world of southern tradition and memories of betrayal‎.‎ While Alexa s trial builds to a climax in New York‎,‎ her daughter settles into southern life‎,‎ discovering a father and family history she barely knows‎.‎ As secrets are exposed and old wounds are healed‎,‎ Alexa and Savannah‎,‎ after a season in different worlds‎,‎ will come together again strengthened by the challenges they have faced and changed by the mysteries they have unraveled‎.‎ From the gritty chaos of Manhattan s criminal court system to the seductive gentility of the South‎,‎ from the rage of a hardened criminal to the tender bond between a mother and a daughter‎,‎ "Southern Lights" will catch you off guard at every turn‎.‎"